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Originally Posted by Oberon
I'm not quite so sure, we already have radar reduction materials, sound isn't going to be a problem, and heat dampeners would be simple enough to fit, and to escape visual detection, well you could probably just paint the thing black, or use refraction to bend light around the ship.
The primary problem comes with the reduction of the radar reductive material through collisions with micro-meteors and other small debris which nullifies its usefulness, but if a way is found around that then certainly stealth space vessels are a practical possibility, of course they would be primarily ambush vessels since their drive systems would be detectable in use, a bit like the 'tail-pipe' of Changs Bird of Prey. I think that any stealth technology though would find a better use in mines, depending on the level of defence that ships of the future have against micro-meteors and space debris it wouldn't even need to contain explosives, just enough mass to cause damage when the fast moving vessel collides with it.
Of course there is the possibility of sensor systems which are under development at the moment making things like radar obsolete, but whenever a detection system is developed, it is likely that a counter to it will be under development, from Window to ECM to Stealth.
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The problem with stealth ships in space is waste heat and propulsion. If you have humans living on this ship, you are going to generate tons of waste heat, the only way to dispose of which is to radiate it outside the ship, which could be easily detected by anyone casually looking. Then you have the problem that, even if you shut down your engines while trying to be stealthy, you are going to have to burn them in order to actually get anywhere, which would of course be seen by everyone in the system. TLAM Strike's Project Rho link has a nice detailed explanation of the problems with stealth in space.
Stealth mines might work. I can see something like disguising inactive missiles as space junk in orbit, waiting to be activated when an enemy ship wanders too close as a workable tactic. But without a way around these problems "small, heavily armed stealth ships" would not work.
EDIT: Damn ninjas!